"It would be a major undermining of international humanitarian law, and a significant setback for the international community, if the USA, especially given its historic leadership, had to be added to those responsible for the deliberate, calculated, illegal destruction of cultural heritage," BSI said in a statement."
"We ask the President to remove any cultural sites from his target list so as to avoid the USA committing war crimes and to stop threatening cultural sites in Iran in any way," it added.
Trump wrote in a series of tweets that if Iran makes a move to avenge the assassination of Lieutenant-General Qasem Soleimani, Trump said the United States has "targeted 52 Iranian sites" and that some were "at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself".
On Sunday, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi summoned the Swiss envoy looking after the US interest section to convey protest to US President Donald Trump over his threat to target Iranian cultural sites prohibited by the International Humanitarian Law governing the armed conflicts.
Araghchi said that the threats posed by the US president to target Iranian cultural heritage run counter to the Peremptory Norms of the International Law and are amounted to war crimes.
He added that Trump's hostile, threatening, and unlawful remarks are in contravention to the International Law.
Araghchi said that threatening to target cultural sites reminds us of the Mongolian Raid and terror groups that destroyed cultural and historical sites.
He added that Iran will not be intimidated by any threats and will decisively respond to any threat or move against any aggression to its territorial integrity and security.
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